Mobile Grocery Trucks

Forums: Mobile Shopping, Social-Distancing, Grocery Delivery
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Remember the sound of the ice-cream truck music telling you that if you wanted ice-cream, now was the time to come out and get it?

Well, why not have mobile shopping trucks for things like groceries, so that people don't have to go shopping at stores more than once per two weeks (the time it takes to know if you're coming down with a viral infection)?

If the truck only has a single worker, or if multiple workers are separated into different parts of the truck, then groceries can be passed through a service window to customers, like in a vending machine.

Distributing groceries in this way would eliminate the need for shared retail spaces and then the only people who go to stores would be those who have either tested negative or who have been quarantined for more than 2-weeks and thus know they are not infected.

Problems with this solution?

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Do you have any idea just how big a unit such as that would need to be, in order to supply the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people who would be in continued need of groceries?

At any rate, there are many online stores and they do deliver. Is it a perfect choice? No. Consumers must rely on the store to select the best of fruits and veggies. Prepackaged items (cookies, pasta, dairy products, paper products, jarred food, canned goods) are easier.

Then of course the shoppers without credit cards or debit cards, who have to shop in person. Not to be forgotten, those without computer or internet access.

Back in the old days, a truck would come around with fruits, veggies and eggs. Another delivered milk, cream and some other dairy products (but not yogurt, cheeses or ice cream).

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@Sturgis,

Sturgis wrote:

Back in the old days, a truck would come around with fruits, veggies and eggs. Another delivered milk, cream and some other dairy products (but not yogurt, cheeses or ice cream).

We've got about 1800 mobile supermarkets rolling through Germany.
You get there everything: meat, sausages, fresh fruit and vegetables, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, dairy products, canned goods, bakery products, frozen food, pet food, tobacco products, confectionery, drugstore articles, handicraft articles, flowers ...

Outside view of above

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@Sturgis,

Sturgis wrote:

Back in the old days, a truck would come around with fruits, veggies and eggs. Another delivered milk, cream and some other dairy products (but not yogurt, cheeses or ice cream).

That would make sense to have different trucks circulate with different temperatures, different sourcing-points. Then the dairy would produce everything for the dairy truck and so you wouldn't need lots of different levels of sorting/stocking/etc.

When exactly were these "old days," you are talking about?

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@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

We've got about 1800 mobile supermarkets rolling through Germany.

Interesting. Thanks for posting pics.

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@livinglava,

However, this kind of shopping is declining. What's done even more is ... sending your shopping list to the supermarket and get it delivered.

The advantage is that you get not only more choice and better prices with the disadvantage of a fee (paying someone to do the actual shopping).
Our local supermarket now - mainly due to the Corona crisis - got a third van for the delivery, with delivery service on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

However, this kind of shopping is declining. What's done even more is ... sending your shopping list to the supermarket and get it delivered.

The advantage is that you get not only more choice and better prices with the disadvantage of a fee (paying someone to do the actual shopping).
Our local supermarket now - mainly due to the Corona crisis - got a third van for the delivery, with delivery service on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Efficiency is very important. It doesn't make sense to have so many vehicles and drivers delivering custom shopping deliveries when you could just have trucks go directly from a central supply point through neighborhoods.

Maybe that would have been less convenient in the past, before internet makes it possible to track and predict when the truck will come, but nowadays there's no reason you couldn't just get a notification when the truck stops in your area and you could even track it throughout the day to make sure it's not running late, or otherwise schedule-compromised.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

livinglava wrote:

Efficiency is very important. It doesn't make sense to have so many vehicles and drivers delivering custom shopping deliveries when you could just have trucks go directly from a central supply point through neighborhoods.

Maybe that would have been less convenient in the past, before internet ...

I don't know what and how much is stored in these "mobile supermarkets". But I do know that choosing out of tens of thousands different products, get them packed and delivered at a specified time seems to be more convenient for some ... customers as well as shop owners.

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@livinglava,

livinglava wrote:

Well, why not have mobile shopping trucks for things like groceries, so that people don't have to go shopping at stores more than once per two weeks (the time it takes to know if you're coming down with a viral infection)?

If the truck only has a single worker, or if multiple workers are separated into different parts of the truck, then groceries can be passed through a service window to customers, like in a vending machine.

Distributing groceries in this way would eliminate the need for shared retail spaces and then the only people who go to stores would be those who have either tested negative or who have been quarantined for more than 2-weeks and thus know they are not infected.

Problems with this solution?

They have this or already similar it is called peapod and others - most grocery stores deliver now. It isn't like the "ice cream" sort of thing - but in my opinion better - because you select what you want ahead of time and they drop it off.

There are also other options - you order online and then go to the store, park and they bring it out and put in your trunk. I have just recently trying this - I did this with whole foods and now today with target.

My experience with whole foods was so good - it was worth their higher prices.

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@Sturgis,

Sturgis wrote:

At any rate, there are many online stores and they do deliver. Is it a perfect choice? No. Consumers must rely on the store to select the best of fruits and veggies. Prepackaged items (cookies, pasta, dairy products, paper products, jarred food, canned goods) are easier.

Yeah that was my hesitation on ordering online and picking up - their selection of produce - they other thing - if you get something like milk that has a shorter expiration date - I worry they give me something that will expire in an even shorter period - I typically buy the brand of milk that has the longer expiration date as it can vary by product.

Though my first experience I only got a few tomatoes - they did a pretty good job of selecting good ones.

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@Linkat,

I've been fortunate with most items, including dairy.
My go to is Peapod, which (here at least) works with Stop & Shop. Dairy has always had a decent shelf life (milk always more than a week before expiration date) and the fruits and veggies also have a decent window of time. The one problem spot has been bread. It tends to only have a 4 or 5 day run.

Now if only they would carry Progresso black bean soup, all would be good.

1 Reply

@Sturgis,

I haven't tried peapod yet - but I think I might

Just found out my local S&S has one confirmed case of COVID-19 - yeck I was just there last week.

And Whole Foods has 2 confirmed - I just did the amazon prime free pick up there on Saturday.

0 Replies

@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

livinglava wrote:
Efficiency is very important. It doesn't make sense to have so many vehicles and drivers delivering custom shopping deliveries when you could just have trucks go directly from a central supply point through neighborhoods.

Maybe that would have been less convenient in the past, before internet ...
I don't know what and how much is stored in these "mobile supermarkets". But I do know that choosing out of tens of thousands different products, get them packed and delivered at a specified time seems to be more convenient for some ... customers as well as shop owners.

Yes, I think the most efficient thing to do would be to have only the most basic goods circulated via grocery trucks, especially the products that you can't stock up on because they are perishable.

For everything else, you can either make a single trip every month or more; or you could have a large delivery so you'd only have to pay the delivery fee once every month or two.

The more we can avoid the stores, the less viruses will spread.

I think it is a problem for retailers' business model, though, which involves getting people to come to the store more frequently so that they will buy other things that what they came for.

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In the old days, we would just sharpen a stick or pick up a big rock and just grab food as it wandered nearby.

How things have changed.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Well there is a big group of turkeys wandering around town - some of them are very large.

If things get bad - I am going to catch one!

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

Well there is a big group of turkeys wandering around town - some of them are very large.

If things get bad - I am going to catch one!

See how long the supply lasts if other people get the same idea too.

0 Replies

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